1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a hand held electronic device that imparts a digital image onto a wall, ceiling, floor, or any smooth relatively flat surface. Related U.S. Patent Classification Definitions include Nos. 347/109, 400/88, 434/84, and 206/575.
2. Description of Prior Art
When decorating a room, there are many products available to enhance the aesthetic appeal of the space. A portion of this décor involves the walls, ceilings, and floors, of which there are many treatments and dressings available. Typical decor involves paint, wallpaper, and wall borders, materials that are readily available, but for more sophisticated treatments, such as murals, trompe l'oeils, borders, faux surfaces such as marble, faux mosaics, and many other pleasing effects, a professional artist is typically required. One can tackle the task themselves, although this comes with it a large burden to not only design the imagery itself, but to also proportion the design on the surface, acquire the appropriate paints, layout the outlines of the design on the surface, put down drop clothes, and meticulously apply the paint, layer by layer, color by color.
A couple alternatives to this approach have been proposed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,696,400 and 6,217,336. Although both provide patterns as guides for the non-professional artist, the patents rely on the consumer applying the pattern to the surface, having the necessary paints, and most importantly of all, a fine artistic eye for detail, color and light, particularly for sophisticated wall art.
Furthermore, on the supply side of providing wall art, a professional artist is somewhat limited in their ability to expand their clientele due to their physical presence being required in the room to be decorated. That is, they have to be present to render their art. Per the prior art references, reducing their art to patterns provides an avenue for the artist to distribute their work to a wider audience without being physically present, but the range of color and light in the imagery must be limited to accommodate the non-artist who will be applying the art. This stifles the entry of truly professional artists in the realm of mass distribution of full-scale sophisticated wall designs for the home or office.
From a technical perspective, a few alternatives to applying ink to surfaces via hand held devices are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,947,262, 5,595,445, 5,887,992, 5,988,900, and 6,092,941. These offerings, though, are generally limited to linear printing of text, symbols, indicia, bar codes, and the like. An offering that begins to approach the present invention is U.S. Pat. No. 6,312,124, which is a hand held device proposing to impart images on various surfaces, but again, its basic concept involves generally a single stroke, and thus lacks the ability to render large, coordinated imagery, such as would fill a wall.